MAN... All the new guys for 2007

[Chris]

I was just over at Jayski and looking at all the possible additions to the CUP field for 2007...
It is simply amazing...
You got folks like Ward Burton saying he is close to putting a deal together,...
The Wood brouthers are thinking they could possiblely have another car driver by Jon Wood...
DEI is already committed to bringing up Paul Menard to CUP and having him drive the #15,... and now there is talk of a FOURTH car...
Toyota is rumored to be in serious talks with Bill Elliott to drive full time,.. and he said "he would do it if the money was right"
Bill Davis is looking for a sponsor to put Bill Lester is a second car
Boris Said is hoping to put together a full deal to run the full season next season also...
Johnny Sauter would be a second CUP team for Gene Haas (provided all his legal problems don't entirely shut that shop down)
I'll mention
These are ALL new driver / New Team combinations...
THEN you got the new TOYOTA teams... (of course some of those are just 'this years' drivers moving from a Chevy or Ford this year into a Toyota next year).... But it COULD open a seat in the team they leave for someone else..??
I mean you got Vickers going to Toyota... Mears goes to THAT seat; which leaves an EMPTY seat at Ganassi... GOTTA figure Ganassi will fill that seat sith someone.
Jarret also goes to Toyota,... Yates has a seat to fill.

I'll also mention Todd Kluever but that won't be a "new team" because he'll be assuming Mart Martins ride...

When you start adding everything up,...  If they ALL come through
You got 10 more quality teams than you have THIS season.
Locking in the top 35 isn't fair to all the "new sponsors"... (put aside Toyota coming into the series)
I think the fastest 43 should race every week.... especially with all this many GOOD teams showing up every week.  NASCAR said the 'top 35' rule was to "protect the sponsors".
Well looks like you're gonna have 50 full time sponsors...
HOW do you protect them all...
ONLY way to get them ALL exposure is to expand the fields,.. and we KNOW thats NOT gonna happen...

[Gymmie]

It definitely is going to be interesting to see how it all turns out. It's going to be interesting to see who goes home next year. Now when a FT ride of say Scott Wimmer goes home it's "no big deal" because their team is't "there" as far as being contenders week in and week out. However if a powerhouse such as a Dale Earnhardt Jr. or a Jimmie Johnson went home. And I know the risk for them would only be if after the first 5 races they were outside the top 35 since they don't have a champions' provisional--provided Jimmie is denied again this year. But just to show an example of what would make NA$CAR stand up and take notice.

And they can deny it, but the proposed "changes" are in diirect result of Jiffy and Jr. missing the show last year. No the world didn't come to an end as was predicted but it was interesting to see if sudden "changes" would take place once they missed it.

[ROOKER]

Boris said won't get Crap....

[Chris]

I'm betting what's gonna happen NEXT year is this:
there won't be a LOT more teams show up to race then there are this year after the first few weeks.
I mean lets looks at this logically...

We're gonna have about 50 TOP NOTCH teams next year,...
THEN your gonna have them teams we have THIS year of Long, Lepage, Garvey, Chaffin, Cope, K. Wallace, etc....
I think we all KNOW those teams won't be able to compete with the 'best' teams...
SO they'll give it a shot for a few weeks and see how it goes,.. see they can't compete, and then just drop out.

That'll leave us with the 50 teams we are having show up every week now.
BUT it'll be 50 QUALITY teams every week...
WHO will make the field can vary greatly.
I think WHOEVER gets in the top 35 after the first 5 races (maybe 7) will be looking pretty good... after that the other cars will be a 'revolving door' since they are so 'similar' in prefromance

SO,... Like I brought up in another post... SOMEONE is gonna do BAD at Daytona.  Lets assume it's Earnhardt Jr.  Crashes out early.  Then he blows up at California,.. and as usual he runs poorly at Las Vegas.  SO three races into the season is has three poor finishes.
AT the end of the first 5 races,... here he is 38th or so in points,.. and MISSES the race on time.  The BUDWEISER car goes home.
HOW will Nascar react to THAT.

Don't scoff,.. COULD happen,... if not to the Budweiser car,.. HOW about UPS or ANY of the OTHER major sponsors who'll be all up in NASCAR's @$$ wanting to know WHY they aren't even IN the race when they put "X" million of dollars in advertising and they are "The Official XYZ of Nascar"

Stay tuned unless this Top 35 deal is part of the "new rules" and gets DROPPED<.... I see major problems next season  Imagine paying fans SCREAMING when they go to the race and Earnhardt Jr not even IN the race....

[FS JessNicholas]

I don't think they'll drop the Top 35 thing. I think they're holding their breath and counting on performance to weed out the teams that are already marginal.

MB2's program has gone backwards, and although I love Kyle Petty to death it's a nail-biter every week to see where he falls in the finishing order. Then you've got that "next tier" of guys like Wimmer, Kvapil, etc., who aren't a threat to win or even run in the top 20 on a consistent basis, which at least Petty can do. And as much as I hate to say it, I think that group now includes Robby Gordon's team after such a strong start to the year.

The group that's in real danger next year, I feel, are the Toyotas. Reason? You've got to believe they're putting most of their emphasis on the Car of Tomorrow, because that's what the future is going to be. But half the season is going to get run with the Car of Today. Chevy, Ford and Dodge are already lightyears ahead of Toyota in developing those models. Once the Car of Tomorrow takes over, though, the playing field will level out.

But that comes after the top 35 cutoff. Jarrett and Elliot will have their champions' provisionals to use, but guys like Michael Waltrip, Bill Lester, Brian Vickers and whoever's in the 22 won't have that luxury.

If I had to make a very wild-*** prediction at the moment, I'd say Lester, Vickers, Waltrip, Kvapil, Wimmer, Sterling Marlin, Robby Gordon, one of Ganassi's Dodges and either Blaney/Mystery 22 Driver or Jeff Green is locked out after the first cut week. Guys like Lepage, Cope, Kenny Wallace, etc., have no chance with their current teams. I think most of those will fold over the offseason, anyway. I would put Kyle Petty on the outside looking in, but the schedule plays to their favor with a plate track and a couple of shorter tracks in the first five.

Boris Said probably won't run a full schedule next year so that's a moot point.

I also will be interested to see whether Petty doesn't try to add a third team, or Haas add his second team, or perhaps James Finch try to move a team up.

NASCAR might seriously have to consider enlarging the field, running heats, running two different "divisions/conferences," something.

Jess

[Chris]

NASCAR might seriously have to consider enlarging the field, running heats, running two different "divisions/conferences," something.

As MUCH controversy as there has been lately about 'bushwhackers",.. tracks wanting more CUP dates, etc etc...
For the last year or so I have been of the opinion Nascar should just do AWAY with the BGN series and combine the two series.
NOW (2007) would be the PERFECT time to do it...
You really need 40 cars in both series to make a show for the fans,...
You got 50+ GOOD CUP teams next season,... plus the 'minor' teams thats running this season (Lepage, Chaffin, etc etc.
Now you got all the BGN teams.  They are for all practice purposes CUP cars.

All NASCAR would have to do is shuffle the schedule, and split up the series. 
Split the series based upon the FINAL points standings... evens going in one division,.. odds in the other.
Have an "East" and "West" series (more likely a North and South.. but you get the idea)
Everyone would do the same amount of travel,.. run the same 'type' of tracks...
Each Series could run 20 races. (so that expands nascar potential to make more money).. then they could have the chase (ie playoff) and take the top 20 cars in the points for that.  ALL the cars would start off even and do the last 10 race chase.
SO you still have 40 car fields.

Tracks that pay X dollars for a BGN date, I am sure would pay to have a CUP date,...
Also TV time should be no problem,... they could have a CUP date on Saturday night at one location,.. and another CUP race at a different track on Sunday.
Nascar could go ahead and give Kentucky a race date... Give BACK a second race date to Darlington, (one for each division), Have a CUP race at Milwaukee, race in Canada, have a spot to add the tracks in NY when it is done, and also Rustys track in Iowa when it is completed.  Could even add a road course like mid-america or something.

they could have MORE races on fewer weekend...
teams would get more weekends OFF,... Fans would get MORE weekends to WATCH... NASCAR would get 50 races to sell instead of 36... and they could have a BETTER way to settle a championship then what they have now.
EVERYTHING is better.  It's a win-win-win all the way.
 

[paulfan]

You can also add in Jermain Racing which will run the COT races only.  I think they have a good plan as they can concentrate on developing that car and not be building cars that will be dinasaurs.  Look out, here comes a Bodine!!!!

[Chris]

Yeah,.. I think Todd will be competitive in the races he runs....
"Do ONE thing,.. and do it well"
They gonna just be working one ONE type of car,.. and not switching back and forth.
They could run up front in those races.

oh.. uuhh.. and he HAS been test driving the cars this season.  Think that may help a little???

[Dustcloud]

Chris, I've wondered several times why they don't just do that with the Busch series. New York wants a Cup date? Give them a Busch-truck weekend. Let them prove they can sell the TRACK and get the butts in the seats with that tandem. Then and only then could a new track be considered for a Cup date.

As for me, I'm just excited to see Todd in the Cup races again. whatever people might think of him, he's a breakout from the mold that Cup's drivers seem to be fitting more and more into anymore. Seriously, along with cookie-cutter tracks, we seem to be getting cookie-cutter drivers. :-/

[KK3869]

If I know one thing the first five qualifying sessions will be interesting to watch

[PlanoHarvickFan]

Well, I've wondered this for a long time and I've never gotten anyone to give me an answer...why did NASCAR settle on "43" for the number in the field for a cup race?  I know my first inclination would be that it had something to do with Richard petty and the #43, but I've never really known and would like to (sorry if this sounds like a really dumb question)

[Chris]

I don't remember Plano...
I been following racing and "saw" all this transpire... but can't put it all together in my mind right now...
I know they USED to start 36 cars...

Then they expanded to something like 40, then 42... not sure if it was because they had more and more competitive teams,.. and more sponsors getting in the sport and needed to get them involved.  (gee kinda the same situation we in now)
Kinda pressure from sponsors because they were sending 'high' dollar sponsors home... so they just expanded the fields.
Best I remember... thats what happened,.. but I could be wrong.

In any event I am quite sure the '43rd' spot came about because of the 'champions provisional.'
It was added if the past chamion 'needed it'.. and it they didn't, then it just went to the fastest qualifier not in the field already.

[Dustcloud]

I might just be remembering wrong, but can someone tell me...

When I got into racing, I seem to remember most of the races had 42 or 43 cars... but some (Maybe the short tracks?) had less. But I might just be remembering wrong

[Chris]

Depends when you got into racing...

I been following racing since the early 70's (just for reference)

[Chris]

Ok Duster..
You got me to thinking...
I dug out my old race programs and dusted them off.... I bet I got over 100 (maybe more)...  I USED to buy one every CUP race I went to.  I stopped when they went to those silly prices of $10+ each...
Anyway... I been looking at the starting line-ups to see how many cars in each race,... see what I can come up with...

Seems like up until the LATE 70's it was just however many showed up.
One shows 50 cars started in a race at Dega back in 77 or 78.
then I got some of the smaller tracks where 28 to 31 started.  Co-relation is the PURSES were real small... so it didn't draw much of a field.
Seems like by '80 there MAY have been some type of system...?? but I wouldn't bet on anything.
Most of the "big" tracks started 40 or 42 cars. (Daytona, Ontario, Atlanta, Michigan, etc)  Small tracks (Nashville, N Wilkesboro, Briston, Martinsville, etc) all started 29-31 cars.  Mid sized tracks usually started 36 cars.

I hadn't got up past '80 yet... but that looks like what went on up to that point.  Size of the track determined how many cars started in the race...  If I figure out any more,.. I'll post more later.  Gotta go through some more of these and see what else jogs my memory...  Gee to see all these old cars and paint jobs,,... wow  Takes me back.